Shhh wrote:

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I'll always applaud players from stepping up from futures to challengers but feel Ed should only being do that on hard. If there's only clay available, I'd rather see him pick yp a few wins in 15k's but................I guess its easy to sit on the side lines and say that!

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I completely agree, although it's not so easy to avoid the clay with a European-focussed schedule of 3 or 4 weeks of tournaments at this time of the year. If his budget could stretch to it, a North American/Asian approach might be better next year, as per James (most of the time) and Dan Evans (recently).

Saw a little of the final set, and really Ed looked no more than average on the clay, particularly as the rallies lengthened: he seems prone to making UEs before he can get a decent strike in......more of an issue on clay than on hard courts. Naso was beaten quite easily by Kyle last week on clay, and I'm sure Kyle would be the first to admit that he is still a year or two away from matching the top clay court Challenger players (like PCB), so Ed is well of where he'd need to be. So while I admire Ed for moving up to a CH-oriented schedule (where others have tried it, then gone back to Futures), I think he may need to focus even more on Hard courts next season. It would be no disgrace - there are plenty of very good players out there who only play on the dirt if they have to!